Great post. I’ve been trying to find SF reviews that aren’t just blurbs to get an idea about what’s going on with the scene currently. With the exception of Tchaikovsky, most authors whose names keep popping up seem to still be ones who started publishing back in the 20th century. Unfortunately, I already know about most of the books on this list. So I’m going to write a wishlist of books I’ve heard of but don’t know that much about and would like to see reviews of,
Radix series by AA Attanasio
Starfishers series by Glen Cook
The Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson
David’s Sling by Marc Stiegler
The Truth Machine by James Halperin
Appleseed by John Clute
Light and Nova Swing by M. John Harrison
Gridlinked by Neal Asher
The Quiet War by Paul McAuley
Silo series by Hugh Howey
Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie
Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
Crystal trilogy by Max Harms
Gnomon by Nick Harkaway
Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone
I think I’ve read this twice, in my early teens and early twenties, and loved it both times. But I’m now 34 and can’t talk about it in depth. I think past-me especially liked the grimness and was impressed at how characters seemed to be doing things for internally motivated reasons. (IIRC Donaldson calls this giving characters “dignity”. I feel like since then I’ve picked up another term for it that’s temporarily slipped my mind.)
I still think A Dark and Hungry God Arises and This Day All Gods Die are excellent book titles.
A caveat is that back then I also loved Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant books, and I think that by my mid-twenties I enjoyed them but not so much. So plausibly I’d like the Gap Cycle less now than then too? But I want to re-read.
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
I once saw a conversation that went something like: “I don’t find writing quality in sci-fi that important.” / “You clearly haven’t read Too Like the Lightning”.
I wasn’t sure if the second person meant TLTL’s writing is good or bad. Having read TLTL, both interpretations seemed plausible. (They meant good.)
I found it very difficult to get through this book, except that the last few chapters were kind of gripping. That was enough to get me to read the next one, which was hard to get through again. Ultimately I read the whole series, and I’m not sure how much I enjoyed the process of reading it. But they’re some of my favorite books to have read, and I can imagine myself re-reading them.
Crystal trilogy by Max Harms
I enjoyed this but don’t have much to say. As an AI safety parable it seemed plausible enough; I hadn’t previously seen aliens like that; I occasionally thought some of the writing was amateurish in a way I couldn’t put my finger on, but that wasn’t a big deal.
Very well-crafted world. Some might dislike the robotic narrator, some might enjoy it as a fun layer in a complex plot puzzle. High scifiosity.
Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
Surreal & unusual novels. Good tone & imagery. Unlike Radch, i think this is more about style & perspective than a style layer over a intricate, hidden plot layer.
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
I read a lot of scifi, but i haven’t gotten this obsessed with a book since Green Mars! Like Radch, a unreliable narrator presents a intricate world. Set on Earth four centuries in the future, it follows the political, technological, & dialectic trajectories of a culture that has mutated in strange & fascinating ways from today. Try it for the economics of future aircraft & the vivid soliloquies. Avoid it if you dislike books that frontload worldbuilding & characters, where the plot is confusing until the end. I love it & i have another post about it here.
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
I found this short book very fun & cool. About spies in a extraordinarily spectacular time-travel war. Does feature some very confusing plot points that i still don’t understand.
Recommended, but only the print version. It is absolutely pointless to read it as an ebook—don’t even try. But as a print book it’s really something.
Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie
Outstanding series. Strongly recommended. Classic space opera, philosophical exploration of identity and personhood, excellently written. Some of the best sf I’ve read in a long time.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
More good old-fashioned space opera. Not quite as satisfying as the previous, but beautifully written. Also recommended.
Silo series by Hugh Howey
I enjoyed several books of this. I think it keeps going? But I have no intention of finding out. I read just enough of this series to have been satisfied with how much of it I have read.
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
I absolutely could not stand this book. It seemed like it was written specifically to annoy and disgust the reader. Mission successful, if so—I didn’t even get a quarter of the way through it.
David’s Sling by Marc Stiegler
Mostly of historical interest (it’s mentioned in the Sequences, and it’s somewhat interesting to see what sorts of things people were envisioning, back then, as hoped-for outcomes of successfully developing and spread rationality techniques). Readable enough, but not exceptional, otherwise.
Great post. I’ve been trying to find SF reviews that aren’t just blurbs to get an idea about what’s going on with the scene currently. With the exception of Tchaikovsky, most authors whose names keep popping up seem to still be ones who started publishing back in the 20th century. Unfortunately, I already know about most of the books on this list. So I’m going to write a wishlist of books I’ve heard of but don’t know that much about and would like to see reviews of,
Radix series by AA Attanasio
Starfishers series by Glen Cook
The Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson
David’s Sling by Marc Stiegler
The Truth Machine by James Halperin
Appleseed by John Clute
Light and Nova Swing by M. John Harrison
Gridlinked by Neal Asher
The Quiet War by Paul McAuley
Silo series by Hugh Howey
Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie
Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
Crystal trilogy by Max Harms
Gnomon by Nick Harkaway
Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone
The Last Astronaut by David Welligton
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
XX by Rian Hughes
Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson
Virtua by Karl Olsberg
I think I’ve read this twice, in my early teens and early twenties, and loved it both times. But I’m now 34 and can’t talk about it in depth. I think past-me especially liked the grimness and was impressed at how characters seemed to be doing things for internally motivated reasons. (IIRC Donaldson calls this giving characters “dignity”. I feel like since then I’ve picked up another term for it that’s temporarily slipped my mind.)
I still think A Dark and Hungry God Arises and This Day All Gods Die are excellent book titles.
A caveat is that back then I also loved Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant books, and I think that by my mid-twenties I enjoyed them but not so much. So plausibly I’d like the Gap Cycle less now than then too? But I want to re-read.
I once saw a conversation that went something like: “I don’t find writing quality in sci-fi that important.” / “You clearly haven’t read Too Like the Lightning”.
I wasn’t sure if the second person meant TLTL’s writing is good or bad. Having read TLTL, both interpretations seemed plausible. (They meant good.)
I found it very difficult to get through this book, except that the last few chapters were kind of gripping. That was enough to get me to read the next one, which was hard to get through again. Ultimately I read the whole series, and I’m not sure how much I enjoyed the process of reading it. But they’re some of my favorite books to have read, and I can imagine myself re-reading them.
I enjoyed this but don’t have much to say. As an AI safety parable it seemed plausible enough; I hadn’t previously seen aliens like that; I occasionally thought some of the writing was amateurish in a way I couldn’t put my finger on, but that wasn’t a big deal.
Very well-crafted world. Some might dislike the robotic narrator, some might enjoy it as a fun layer in a complex plot puzzle. High scifiosity.
Surreal & unusual novels. Good tone & imagery. Unlike Radch, i think this is more about style & perspective than a style layer over a intricate, hidden plot layer.
I read a lot of scifi, but i haven’t gotten this obsessed with a book since Green Mars! Like Radch, a unreliable narrator presents a intricate world. Set on Earth four centuries in the future, it follows the political, technological, & dialectic trajectories of a culture that has mutated in strange & fascinating ways from today. Try it for the economics of future aircraft & the vivid soliloquies. Avoid it if you dislike books that frontload worldbuilding & characters, where the plot is confusing until the end. I love it & i have another post about it here.
I found this short book very fun & cool. About spies in a extraordinarily spectacular time-travel war. Does feature some very confusing plot points that i still don’t understand.
Recommended, but only the print version. It is absolutely pointless to read it as an ebook—don’t even try. But as a print book it’s really something.
Outstanding series. Strongly recommended. Classic space opera, philosophical exploration of identity and personhood, excellently written. Some of the best sf I’ve read in a long time.
More good old-fashioned space opera. Not quite as satisfying as the previous, but beautifully written. Also recommended.
I enjoyed several books of this. I think it keeps going? But I have no intention of finding out. I read just enough of this series to have been satisfied with how much of it I have read.
I absolutely could not stand this book. It seemed like it was written specifically to annoy and disgust the reader. Mission successful, if so—I didn’t even get a quarter of the way through it.
Mostly of historical interest (it’s mentioned in the Sequences, and it’s somewhat interesting to see what sorts of things people were envisioning, back then, as hoped-for outcomes of successfully developing and spread rationality techniques). Readable enough, but not exceptional, otherwise.
Might be worth posting this as it’s own question for greater visibility